Currently, 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) drawing up technical specifications of public wireless communication networks is working on a function extension (see, for example, Non-Patent Literature 1).
According to the function extension (called Machine to Machine Equipment), information indicating service availability can flexibly be used. The information indicating service availability is MCIM (Machine Communication Identity Module). For example, MCIM can be downloaded from a network, temporarily stopped, or restarted.
Currently, information corresponding to the MCIM needs to be stored in a physical device called an SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card. However, by handling MCIM as software, the method of storing the MCIM can also be made flexible.